Despite the fact that we’ve eaten delicious fish dishes almost daily on the Madeira Island, such as the black scabbard fish with the big eyes,I’ve become aware that the small fishermen on the island have very big problems because the seas contain almost no more fish stocks.

It seems that there are big differences in the fishing quotas. In 1995 they still caught 8851 tons and in 2000 only less than 700 tons and now the quotas have again gone up to 3000 tons per year. As you can see, we’ve been able to admire some fresh tuna on the market!

In the past whaling was an import income factor and Porto Moniz (in the northwest of the island) lived only on the whaling. The fishermen went with small boats onto the sea to catch and kill the whales with harpoons and lances. They then produced soap, fish oil or margarine from them. Out of the bones they made filigree souvenirs and the brain mass represented the basis of the perfume.

In 1981 Portugal signed the decree on protected animals species and whales are therefore protected.Unfortunately, we’ve also heard that the EU pays a lot of money for outdated fisher boats, which should be substituted with new ones and that the older fishermen frequently prefer to somewhat enjoy their quiet retirement with this money and that consequently for the younger generations there isn’t anything left.

Fish is really one kind of food I really appreciate but I’m also aware that I should not exaggerate eating them because they continue to diminish continuously and we should also leave some for future generations, shouldn’t we!
Many thanks for having read my post. Very best regards
Martina